Bournemouth

You've got to admit, it's getting harder and harder to stay positive about our prospects. This home form of ours is becoming a right git - every time we need a victory to consolidate our position in the chase, we bugger it up with dropped points and are left playing the chasing game once again. For many, the defeat on Saturday felt like the last straw in this pattern of shoddiness at home. We're 8 points away from the play-offs, although the funny thing is that's only 10 off top too, so if you are still confident that we're in with a shout of achieving something this year - you may as well have your eyes on automatics as well. There's very little difference. While the likely required points total is still eminently achievable, it needs a concerted run to get there. A proper run of results, where we genuinely earn the right to make the play-offs, rather than bumble our way over the finish line and somehow expect that to be enough. Having not won more than 2 straight league games all season, the idea that we can finally achieve that level of consistency seems a tad unlikely to me. Mind you, that's not to say our form in general is disastrous. We are picking up regular results away from home. But next up comes Bournemouth - Eddie Howe's squeaky clean machine with one of the best home records in the league. We need to get back into confidence-mode. Like, really quickly.